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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25562458">Once Lost, Ne'er Found (But Maybe Today Can Be Different)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sealure/pseuds/Sealure'>Sealure</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Ahsoka Tano Needs a Hug, Angst with a Happy Ending, Episode: s03e21 Padawan Lost, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Jinx Needs a Hug, O-Mer Needs a Hug, Remember Kalifa, They all get one, This friendship is way underrated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 12:28:07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,417</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25562458</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sealure/pseuds/Sealure</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Ahsoka saved their lives on Wasskah, yes. But she did much more than that: she saved their souls and she brought them home. Jinx and O-Mer will never forget that. She fought for them, and they will fight for her to their last breaths. Come hell or high water or the Jedi Council itself, they will never give up on each other. </p><p>AKA Jinx, O-Mer, and Ahsoka through the years.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ahsoka &amp; Jinx, Ahsoka &amp; O-Mer, Jinx &amp; O-Mer</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>55</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Once Lost, Ne'er Found (But Maybe Today Can Be Different)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I always wished the creators of the show had done more with Jinx and O-Mer. They just completely disappeared after that one episode that they were in, and it makes me sad, because I think the three of them had a very close friendship. I mean, come on, they survived a Trandoshan hunting moon together. So yeah, this is me fixing that problem.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Jinx and O-Mer are Ahsoka’s friends.</p><p>It is a simple fact of life, and after the events on Wasskah, it is well known within the Order.</p><p>The two of them become her best friends very rapidly, because unlike Barriss, they understand what war requires. They have seen her at her worst, her most vicious and brutal, and they have not shied away from her. They have been hunted with her and fought together for their very lives. Their bond is strong. </p><p>When Ahsoka is banished from the order, they come to visit her in her cell, using every last scrap of influence they have as Commanders of the GAR to get into the prison. Honestly, Fox doesn’t fight them very hard. He doesn’t think she did it, either.</p><p>O-Mer entreats the Council on her behalf, spinning his arguments with a grace and eloquence worthy of Obi-Wan’s own arguments. Jinx carefully keeps his mouth shut because he knows that if he opens it, all he’s going to do is scream at them that they’re traitors, that they’ve clearly never met Ahsoka if they can think for even one second that she is capable of this. Obi-Wan, Plo Koon, and O-Mer do their best, but they are outvoted.</p><p>Then Ahsoka runs, and her friends pace furrows into the floors of their quarters as they wait. Ahsoka knows how to hide, and how to survive. They do not think she will be caught until she wants to be.</p><p>They are wrong, because she is betrayed.</p><p>Anakin pulls through, just like she’d told them he would.</p><p>But it’s too late.</p><p>Ahsoka is leaving, and neither Jinx nor O-Mer can blame her. They are not so sure they trust the Council anymore, either.</p><p>They wait for her at the bottom of the Temple steps and they hold her as she falls apart. They give her all the credits they have, along with a commlink and a <em>warning </em>as to what they will do to her if she loses it or doesn’t answer them when they call her.</p><p>She promises.</p><p>When she leaves she runs, and she doesn’t look back, because they all three know that if she looks back, she’ll never be able to go.</p><hr/><p>The war drags on.</p><p>Anakin and Obi-Wan keep a close eye on O-Mer and Jinx for her, and neither Padawan can say they’re ungrateful for it. It’s nice to know that somebody cares.</p><p>And then…</p><p>And then something called <em>Order 66</em> came through for the clones, and every blaster turns on <em>them </em>and the younglings are <em>screaming</em> and <strong><em>everyone is dying and—</em></strong></p><hr/><p>They hide in Coruscant’s lower levels for months.</p><p>It is easy enough to get rid of their Jedi robes and tunics, and Jinx does not judge O-Mer’s tears when they cut their Padawan braids. He pretends not to notice his Cerean friend hiding his braid in an inner pocket of his new vest, and O-Mer does him the same courtesy when he keeps his own.</p><p>They do not want to stay on Coruscant, so they pick up odd jobs at the spaceport, and soon enough they’re hired on a big supply cruiser heading to the Outer Rim. They jump ship on Christophsis and try not to think about Ahsoka’s exasperated tales of how disastrous every single mission here had been.</p><p>They’re trying not to think about her at all, actually, because Obi-Wan had had the decency to tell them that she was on Mandalore, that Rex and Jesse and Stirling and half of the 501<sup>st</sup> had gone with her to keep her safe and they had probably killed her <strike>and she had probably let them.</strike></p><p>A few years pass. They take odd jobs where they can find them, never staying in one place for too long. They are skilled fighters, having learned hand-to-hand by means of necessity on Wasskah, but also receiving actual training in the Temple. They are hired as security, bodyguards, transport escorts, and eventually, they wind up on a pirate crew. Their gang is almost careless about their jobs, occasionally even working for the Empire.</p><p>Neither Jinx nor O-Mer are particularly thrilled about it, but these men took them in. They train them and they protect them and they are rough around the edges but they have good hearts.</p><p>They’ve been with the pirates for four years when a turf war breaks out between them and another gang, and their Captain is killed in the fighting. They almost lose, but Jinx has lost enough in his life and so he puts his foot down and picks up the Captain’s blaster and <em>drives those sleemos off his ship. </em></p><p>The vote to promote Jinx to Captain is initiated by O-Mer and it is utterly unanimous.</p><p>Jinx is a good Captain for their motley crew of misfits. He knows every single one of his men—the few that are left, that is. Stories of their impossible victory spread, and very soon Jinx is <em>feared</em>. He rarely leads raids himself, but his strategical mind is always at work on ways to keep his men alive. He might be feared, but the only thing stronger than his men’s fear of him is their love for him. He saved them. He gave them a home. He fights for them. They are inherently loyal to him, in a way that few pirate Captains can ever claim.</p><p>Still nearly his exact opposite, O-Mer is beloved by their entire crew, his gentle spirit somehow still intact. He is patient, caring, and kind. He never forgets anyone's birthdays or anniversaries. He <em>cares</em> for the men, and he is by far their most skilled healer. But when their men are threatened…he makes infuriated Nexu look like cuddly little kittens. The crew of the <em>Kalifa </em>is one of the most feared and successful pirate bands operating in the Outer Rim.</p><p>They’re a family.</p><hr/><p>Years pass.</p><p>They gain experience and scars and friends and enemies.</p><p>They still remember the fiery Togruta who saved them.</p><p>O-Mer catches Jinx staring out at the stars sometimes, late at night, turning a tiny amulet over and over in his fingers. It’s a simple thing, a single flower petal pressed between two thin shards of clear crystal. O-Mer has one just like it. The flower petals are from Wasskah.</p><p>Ahsoka had given the crystals to each of them on the day they had been re-inducted into the Jedi Order. She had told them, her voice gentle and so understanding, not to forget their past, but not to let it define them, either. She took symbols of their greatest pain and turned them into something beautiful in both appearance and intent. Every time they look at their crystals, they remember her love. Her determination to <em>save </em>them.</p><p>And they mourn her.</p><hr/><p>One of their men comes in with news of a bounty on this <em>“Fulcrum”  </em>person and it would set up their entire crew for literal years, so of course they decide to go after it.</p><p>Fulcrum is very, very hard to catch and no one seems to know anything about them. Male, female, what race, what allegiance…absolutely no one knows <em>anything,</em> but at last, they catch wind of this Togruta. And this Togruta is allegedly literally the only person in the galaxy that knows who and where Fulcrum is.</p><p>So they go after this Ryven Kial’yr character.</p><p>They get her. She puts up a hell of a fight. She takes out over half of their crew before somebody finally manages to catch her off guard with a <em>hydrospanner</em>, of all things. They drag her back to the ship and take her to the brig for questioning.</p><p>O-Mer and Jinx are going through the inventory from their last raid in the next room over. They trust their men to get the info out of her. Haron, in particular, has never failed to get somebody talking in all the years they’ve worked with him. They listen over the comms with partial attention as the interrogation goes on.</p><p>But Kial’yr doesn’t start talking.</p><p>She starts laughing.</p><p>“What the kriff is the matter with you?” one of their men grunts, and the sound of a blaster butt striking bone sounds clearly over the comm. “You think this is funny?”</p><p>“I <em>think</em>,” the Togruta hisses, still laughing, “that you are going to have to try <em>so much harder </em>to even <em>begin </em>to phase me. I was raised in war, I’ve survived Zygerrian slavers, Inquisitors, assassins, droids, and bounty hunters with personal vendettas. I survived <em>a Trandoshan hunting moon </em>at sixteen standard<em>.</em> You are <em>nothing.</em> I will <em>never </em>give you what you want.”</p><p>Jinx goes as still as death and sees all of the color drain from O-Mer’s face.</p><p>The Twi’lek is on his feet and through the door in an instant.</p><p>“Stop,” he says.</p><p>His voice is quiet, but silence <em>instantly </em>falls across the room.</p><p>His men back away, their heads bowed in respect.</p><p>Jinx stalks forward until he can see the Togruta.</p><p>She’s on her knees, head bowed, but the proud line of her shoulders remains unbroken. She is bruised, and her left arm hangs at a strange angle—dislocated shoulder, probably. She wears a ragged collection of armor, twin vibroblades sheathed at her hips. Her lekku are the wrong colors. The stripes are gold, not blue.</p><p>He moves around to see her face.</p><p>The eyes that seem to pierce through to his very heart are green, not the soulfire blue that he remembers. Her facial markings are wrong.</p><p>And he still knows her.</p><p>Jinx may only have one eye left, but he is anything but blind. He does not need O-Mer’s shaky gasp, one hand covering his mouth, to know that this is their friend. He does not even need the Force—not that he dares to reach out to it now, any more than O-Mer does.</p><p>This is their sister.</p><p>This is Ahsoka.</p><p>“Do you know the name of this vessel?” he asks her, his voice gentle.</p><p>She raises one eyebrow marking at him. “I <em>literally </em>could not care less—”</p><p>“It is called the <em>Kalifa,</em>” he tells her, and she stops short.</p><p>Her eyes get very wide very fast and they <em>rake </em>over him. She twists sharply, but O-Mer has already scrambled to Jinx’s side so she can see him too and she <em>rips </em>her way out of the cuffs in a way that <em>has </em>to hurt and she <em>throws </em>herself at them with a hoarse <em>wail </em>of agony.</p><p>Jinx surges forward, catching her waist and crushing her to him. He presses their faces together and closes his eye and does not even try to hide his tears. He stumbles back into the wall, her arms tightening around his neck until he can barely breathe.</p><p>“Ahsoka,” O-Mer chokes, and he slams into her back. “<em>Ahsoka.</em>”</p><p>They press her between them and hold her up when her legs give out under her, her entire body heaving with sobs.</p><p>Jinx does not speak, just holds her tighter and tighter until her armor creaks in protest. He presses the side of his face to hers, hard, and does not let go.</p><p>O-Mer twines his fingers with hers on Jinx’s back and presses his browbone into the crook of her shoulder and repeats her name as though it is the only word that he can remember.</p><p>Ahsoka cannot speak at all.</p><p>She just clings to them with a desperation that they know all too well.</p><p>After all, they are holding her just as tightly.</p><hr/><p>Jinx dismisses the rest of their crew with a single gesture before he simply sweeps Ahsoka into his arms and strides out of the brig. O-Mer keeps pace beside him, still holding tightly to one of her hands.</p><p>She does not make even a token protest, just tucks her face into Jinx’s neck and remains silent. He can still feel her tears soaking into the collar of his shirt.</p><p>They take her to their quarters. For all that he’s the Captain, Jinx had no desire to live in an opulent space far away from his men, so he and O-Mer share the first mate’s quarters, which has its own fresher and a set of bunk beds. It works for them.</p><p>When they arrive, Jinx settles Ahsoka on the lower bunk while O-Mer darts into the fresher to grab their first aid kit.</p><p>The Twi’lek kneels in front of her and takes her face in his hands, prompting her to lift her head and open her eyes.</p><p>“It’s really good to see you,” she says, and her voice is hoarse and cracking. “I thought you were dead.”</p><p>“We missed you,” Jinx says simply, and her face crumples.</p><p>She leans forward until their foreheads meet and just stays there.</p><p>“I’m so sorry,” she breathes. “I should’ve stayed. If I’d stayed, maybe…maybe I could have prevented all this.”</p><p>“Don’t say that,” O-Mer scolds, bustling back into the room with his arms full. He waits until Ahsoka sits up again before he kisses her forehead and takes both her hands in his. “This is not your fault, Ahsoka.”</p><p>“Isn’t it?” She smiles mirthlessly at them. “I’m supposing you don’t know who Vader is, do you?”</p><p>They blink up at her at the seeming non sequitur.</p><p>“He’s the Emperor’s right hand,” Jinx says, raising an eyebrow. He flinches in tandem with Ahsoka as O-Mer resets her shoulder in one swift move. “A murderer. They say he is the most powerful Sith to ever live.”</p><p>“That would be because he’s the Chosen One,” Ahsoka says dully. “And instead of balancing the Force, he fell to the Darkness and dragged all the rest of us with him.”</p><p>Jinx can feel the color draining from his face. O-Mer sways and sits down beside Ahsoka.</p><p>“Your Master,” Jinx breathes, feeling his heart break for her all over again as she nods, bracing her elbows on her knees and hiding her face in her hands. “Oh, <em>Soka.</em>”</p><p>“I wasn’t there for him,” she gasps out. “I left him behind, and I wasn’t there for him. My trial made him lose faith in the Jedi—in <em>Obi-Wan</em>—and then I <em>left him </em>and he had no one to turn to. I should have stayed.”</p><p>“You couldn’t, Ahsoka,” O-Mer whispers, his own tears falling like rain. He wraps an arm around her waist, mindful of her wounded shoulder. “You couldn’t have stayed, Ahsoka. It would have torn you apart.”</p><p>“You made the right choice,” Jinx says quietly, gently gripping her wrists and moving her hands so he can meet her eyes. “Anakin made his own choices. You hold no blame for what he chose to do. That’s on him, not you. You made the only choice you could.”</p><p>She smiles at them.</p><p>It’s a tiny, wobbly, terribly sad thing that carries only a fraction of its former Light, but it’s there.</p><p>She doesn’t quite believe them. They can see it in her eyes.</p><p>But she’s starting to, and for now, that’s enough.</p><p>They have no intention of losing her again.</p><hr/><p>They fix her.</p><p>It takes a long time, but eventually her smiles are real and wide and bright like they used to be. Her spirit is somehow unbroken, even after all that she’s been through, and it takes the entire crew less than a standard week to unanimously fall head over heels in love with her. Five of them have already proposed. Jinx thinks it's hilarious, and O-Mer just rests his face in his hands and tries not to encourage them any further. </p><p>She still fits with them, and all three of them thank the Force every day that they found each other again.</p><hr/><p>Ahsoka flies with their crew for a long time. They rob Empire transports, jam Empire transmissions, blow up Empire outposts…basically everything and anything they can to make Sheev Palpatine’s life very, very difficult.</p><p>Their individual bounties could buy a planet. All three bounties added together, and one could purchase an entire system.</p><p>They're constantly on the run, dodging patrols and fleets and spies and assassins, getting half blown up on every other planet they stop at, always looking over their shoulders. </p><p>And it’s good.</p><hr/><p>But Ahsoka’s heart has always been bigger than everyone else’s. She still feels as though she has a duty to the galaxy, even though she is no longer a soldier. She is a rebel, a pirate, no longer a Commander of legions. She still has a lot of friends out there, though, and slowly, bit by bit, they come together.</p><p>Bit by bit, they start to build something.</p><p>They start to build <em>hope. </em></p><p>Obi-Wan is alive, she tells them, but she can’t tell them where he is or what he’s doing. Apparently, whatever it is will make or break the universe for good.</p><p>Jinx keeps his pessimistic opinion on that to himself, and O-Mer covers the Twi’lek’s silence with his own enthusiastic pronouncement that he believes Master Kenobi will succeed. Ahsoka grimaces at them, her realistic viewpoint right on the fence between theirs, as usual.</p><p>They help her as much as they can, and when she finally has to leave their crew for good, they press another commlink into her hands.</p><p>She hugs them as tight as she can before she takes the shuttle they’d stolen for her and sets off for Alderaan.</p><p>But this time, she sets it on autopilot and waves out the back viewport, because it’s not goodbye and they all know they’ll see each other again.</p><hr/><p>The next years are hectic, to say the least.</p><p>Ahsoka’s Rebellion has caught fire, and it burns across a galaxy that remembers what it was like to be <em>free. </em>Left and right, people are rising up to fight for their freedom, and it’s a truly beautiful thing.</p><p>Jinx and O-Mer and their crew run weapons, medical supplies, and relief efforts for the Rebellion free of charge, on the condition that they get to kidnap Ahsoka every now and then to go blow up something that’s going to rub their growing influence right in the Emperor’s wrinkly face.</p><p>Ahsoka is absolutely in her element, her eyes brighter every time they see her.</p><p>They are gaining allies.</p><p>They are growing stronger.</p><p>They…</p><p>Well, kriff.</p><p>Even Jinx can no longer deny that they may actually have a chance here.</p><hr/><p>It’s a miracle they survived the first Death Star.</p><p>The second one?</p><p>Jinx is chalking that one up to sheer Skywalker force of will and pure Tano <em>spite. </em></p><p>That’s how they survived that one.</p><p>Ahsoka’s fighter squadrons keep the <em>Falcon </em>as clear as they could, and then…</p><p>O-Mer and Jinx nearly go to their knees at the shockwaves of the Emperor’s death.</p><p>Ahsoka’s cry of grief rings out over their comms and <em>screams </em>into the Force with Anakin’s last breath.</p><hr/><p>The Rebellion is celebrating. Luke tells them all the story of Anakin Skywalker’s triumphant return to the Light and Ahsoka can’t seem to decide whether to laugh or cry when Luke lights his father’s pyre.</p><p>Jinx and O-Mer don’t make her choose. They just drag her down to sit between them and crush her in their arms. The fire makes her tears shine like liquid gold as they trail down her face, sparkling like falling stars as they drip from her chin to soak into the earth.</p><p>She closes her eyes and tilts her head back, letting loose one long, mournful howl in the manner of her people. </p><p>They squeeze her hands and follow suit.</p><p>They mourn what could have been.</p><p>They mourn what was lost.</p><p>They mourn their friends, their family.</p><p>They mourn for the broken galaxy they live in now.</p><p>
  <em>(But stronger than their grief is their gratitude that they three are still alive, and still together, and still fighting to chase the Light)</em>
</p><hr/><p>The three of them stay by the pyre all night long.</p><p>When the first light of dawn brushes away the lingering night, Ahsoka rises to her feet.</p><p>She wipes away her tears and gives them both a determined smile.</p><p>They walk back to their ship with their arms over each other’s shoulders and their heads held high.</p><p>Because they have not forgotten who they are. They never will again. </p><p>They are Jedi.</p><p>They are not the last ones. </p><p>And <em>hope </em>fills their hearts as the sun soars high in the sky. </p><p>The Light has returned. </p><p>It must be guided, and grown, and protected, and the three of them...</p><p>The three of them are more than ready for the challenge. </p>
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